Woodrow, the 3-D talking assistant is back, and patient users may appreciate the tips from his computer-generated voice. We found the high-end Plantronics stereo microphone extremely responsive. It's the best mike we've seen included with a speech recognition product.

As with past versions, ViaVoice returns high-recognition accuracy from the start. But this version also responds to dictation noticeably faster: Text snaps onto the screen as you dictate. On our tests, initial accuracy was just above 92 percent. After a couple hours of correction and use of the Analyze Documents feature, it climbed to 98.5 percent.

As with the ScanSoft product, as long as you select text before correcting by using either voice, the keyboard, or the correction dialog, the program learns your corrections. We found navigation and correction a bit more difficult in ViaVoice than in NaturallySpeaking, but comparable to that in Office XP.

You can access a list of natural-language commands for many applications by saying "What can I say?" If a command is misrecognized several times, the Recognition Wizard pops up and suggests solutions. You can also assign a key to press whenever you speak a command, so ViaVoice doesn't mistake it for a dictated word. The Recognition Wizard even detects when background noise is too loud or audio quality is poor.

ViaVoice supports Netscape Communicator 4.7.4 or later and AOL 6.0 or later, in addition to Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later. You can train a Web page that you frequently visit, so you can add it to your favorites. You can also select specific vocabulary topics, such as chatter's jargon, for use with IM clients.

Like NaturallySpeaking's scripts, ViaVoice supports dictation and navigation macros for automating speech tasks or keyboard/mouse combinations. A Navigation Macro Wizard guides you through creating these shortcuts.

ViaVoice is sure to appeal to budget-conscious people looking for a strong voice recognition program.

IBM ViaVoice for Windows Pro USB Edition Release 9

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